Month: November 2015

Of the four of us, Steph and I have the most disparate reading tastes. She prefers no-frills realistic stories while I like frills and a fantastic genre (unless it’s Manga, then I prefer realistic stuff) above all else. Still, I have read Sedgwick’s White Crow and enjoyed it a lot so when she suggested I read Revolver I pounced on the chance to read more of his work.

It is a rather timely novel, I must say, considering the Great-Gun-Debate our neighbours across the border are (and if they aren’t, they should be) indulging in. Here’s a synopsis:

“They say that dead men tell no tales, but they’re wrong. Even the dead tell stories.”

It’s 1910. In a cabin north of the Arctic Circle, in a place murderously cold and desolate, Sig Andersson is alone. Except for the corpse…

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Education reform wants competition and global participation, but reform does not seem interested in intervening in the dark side of such progress. As a modern nation, we celebrate development, yet we tend to overlook the lives lost and voices pushed to the margins of society in the process. Literature is one way we can bear witness to distant suffering and contemplate future action.

Teachers have been reading books about the Holocaust with students for years in part because many states made Holocaust education mandatory in the hopes of raising a generation who might live the promise of “never again.” However, again and again we hear stories of genocide and see images of distant suffering.

Teen readers want to uncover the stories behind the images, stories missing from textbooks and the classroom current events magazines. They want the opportunity to ask why “again and again” and to imagine what needs to…

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It’s almost a cliche at this point to say that a teen book isn’t just for teens anymore. Parents treasure this book just as their teens that love reading it.

INTO THE HURRICANE

Jack Hall proceeds, in the action-packed new adventure book, to the popular teen action author.

Jack Hall’s new series is vivid. There is nothing more exciting than reading the action-packed page turner. Be prepared to stay up all night reading.

Into The Hurricane is an adventure story, that takes the reader on an intense journey from the boys home in Texas to Norfolk, Virginia through to the ship’s dramatic moments going into the hurricane. The book combines a unique adventure onboard an ocean freighter with the treacherous betrayal of the Captain.

Butch Carson and his friend Bill Cody spending the most exciting, distinctive, and around-the-clock adventurous time of their summer vacation on a freighter traveling the Atlantic. They experienced the force of a hurricane that they are going into like few others ever have.

Captain Dexter was thrilled when the weather forecast came in about the storm. He placed such great importance on staying out into the Atlantic for his personal gain, that he made a reckless decision, he ordered to change course south, further out into the Atlantic and directly into the hurricane.

Their journey is truly a unique adventure. Both young teens have the rare privilege to discover a conspiracy to sell the shipping line, that they are sailing on. The two boys are hired as part of the crew and Butch realizes, that Captain Dexter is part of a conspiracy to force the owner into selling to his archrival. Butch and Bill have to find a way to warn the owner, Mr. Bendel, not to sell the shipping line. The insidious plot makes an exciting story of adventure.

Butch Carson Adventure series by Jack Hall

There is nothing more exciting than reading a Butch Carson Adventure, that is an action packed page turner. The book series which are full of suspense and adventure takes the reader directly into the story told.

The Butch Carson Adventure series is a collection of journeys where Butch Carson, an American teenager who discovers plots and conspiracies, is accompanied by his best friend, Bill Cody. Each book will inspire an interest and open up to learn something about the world around us. In addition to the story told, each book is notable for its selection of remarkable facts.

Butch Carson is an everyday teenager, a student-athlete from Texas Riviera High School, that is an exceptionally popular teen. Jack Hall is the master of the action-packed adventure story.

I’ll admit it: I was nervous. Although my quest to read the world has taken me on many adventures and seen me speaking to a wide variety of audiences – from 20 Women’s Institute members in a school hall in Lee to 300 Procter & Gamble employees in Geneva – I had never faced a challenge quite like this. As I walked into the authors’ yurt, backstage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, I couldn’t help being aware that I was here to take part in one of the most renowned literary events in the world.

Now, I’ve been in a yurt or two before (I once gave a talk in one in Canterbury), but I have never seen one to compare to this. Sprawling over an area about twice the size of my flat, it was made up of a series of conjoined octagons, which created pleasing little alcoves…

If you’re not familiar with “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christen Anderson then let me present it to you in my own irreverent words.

In the Hans Christen Anderson story, there are twelve royal siblings, 11 boys and 1 girl, who lose their mother to some illness. Their father, the king, marries another woman who is, as women are wont to be in old fairytales, evil. She turns the brothers into wild swans leaving the sister unharmed…well, I guess not really, she took away the sister’s male protectors, leaving her vulnerable. The sister is tasked with finding a way to break the curse on her brothers and the faerie queen (I think) tells her to spin nettles into thread and then weave it into 11 shirts for the brothers. I don’t know the process but you get the…

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Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness? — [X]

Todd Glass‘s situation is unique. After a killer set at the Largo at the Coronet, he retreated backstage to receive some well-deserved accolades from his peers. Two seconds later, he was face down in the filthy carpet of the comedy club, apparently in the throes of a serious heart attack. When Sarah Silverman came to his aid, he asked her to call his girlfriend and tell her what was happening – the unspoken understanding between the two of them being that Todd’s girlfriend was a man, and that Todd would be taking that secret to his grave if need be.

Juan Diego a fourteen-year-old boy, who was born and grew up in Mexico has a thirteen-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she thinks she sees what’s coming specifically, her own future and her brother’s. Consider what a terrible burden it is, if you believe you know the future, especially your own future, or, even worse, the future of someone you love. What might a thirteen-year-old girl be driven to do, if she thought she could change the future? Juan Diego grew up in Mexico, but as an older man traveling in the Philippines, but what travels with him are his dreams and memories; he is most alive in his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico. Avenue of Mysteries is the story of what happens to Juan Diego in the Philippines, where…

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Yesterday morning I went to the Westport Health department to have my Tine test checked. I am happy to report I do not have TB, in part — though not entirely! — because I can now begin volunteering at the Bedford Hills Women’s Correctional facility. That is what Ruby[On the Outside] has done for me: Changed my life. Added to my life. Taken me deeper into myself. And (yes, thank goodness) out of myself.

I have always wanted to volunteer and give back. I’ve done small things here and there; some things fit, others didn’t. Nothing on a regular basis. First my kids were young and needed my time. Then they were older and needed more of my time. I was working. I was writing.

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Not quite a decade ago, author Teju Cole penned Eight Letters to a Young Writer, a fictional exercise in which he gives advice to a young Nigerian writer in a series of eight letters. It’s a lovely, leisurely read, packed with practical advice for writers, seasoned and new.

Here are highlights from Cole’s first letter, Simplicity:

There are many who use big words to mask the poverty of their ideas. A straightforward vocabulary, using mostly ordinary words, spiced every now and again with an unusual one, persuades the reader that you’re in control of your language.

The cliché is an element of herd thinking, and writers should be solitary animals.

In short, keep it simple. He continues:

Read more than you write. In expressing the ambition to be a writer, you are committing yourself to the community of other writers. . . . Read Mann, García Márquez, Coetzee, Joyce…

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Autumn – the most beautiful time of the year in terms of colours – is here in Helsinki and nature has now completely changed its colours from green to all shades of yellow, orange, red and auburn.

This playful game of changing of the colours is what we call ruska in Finnish. The peak season normally only lasts for a couple of weeks in October. During the past few weeks mother nature has really given its best here in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. We have experienced the most beautiful autumn weather: sunshine with clear skies and temperatures around 10 degrees Celsius. Such a perfect weather to go for a walk in the fresh urban outdoors and enjoy the array of autumn colours.

Since nature’s colour galore is at its best it would have been a crime not to capture it with a camera. So inspired by the perfect…

The book helps automotive companies to discover and use tools and techniques that will help transform them into high-effective business drivers.

In Automotive Solutions with SAP: Generating Full Integrated Best Business Processes That Lead to Improvements, Growth, and Contributions, ($29.95 bookforces Publishing, December 2015) author Ralph Kierberg taps into 18 plus years of hands-on experience and know-how to outline successful strategies tailored for automotive companies. This detailed, guide includes examples of rapid backflush, real time supply-to-line, variant configuration that are model based, demand planning, vehicle and engine manufacturing and other significant automotive challenges.

This timely and practical guide does not just explain why an automotive solution is important – it shows how to use cost-effective plans and tactics to reach local and global goals, educate SAP decision makers, and recruit SAP users to adopt. In Automotive Solutions with SAP: Generating Full Integrated Best Business Processes That Lead to Improvements, Growth, and Contributions, offers fascinating real live examples, detailed instructions, and a rich array of tools and tactics that will help automotive companies learn how to:

Well what can be said of the latest instalment of Becky Bloomwood’s life? I’ve been following Becky’s story for many years now and I always enjoy following her crazy adventurous spirit.

Shopaholic to the Stars is well written, well-paced and is consistent, as I’ve said before these are three things all good books should be. Kinsella’s depiction of Becky Bloomwood truly makes her character and spirit come alive off the page. It’s the kind of world you wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall of.

By chapter 3 I was totally imbedded into Becky’s story. I had become emotionally invested in Becky’s family, friends and life in general, any reader paying attention will find the same- I wanted Becky to prosper and have every positive outcome possible. Kinsella, in my opinion, just has that knack of revealing just enough detail; at just the right time. The surprises are constantly…

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Sixteen-year-old Jeff Jacobson had never heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer who brutally murdererd seventeen people more than twenty years ago. But then Jeff discovers he was constructed in a laboratory only eight years ago, part of a top-secret government cloning experiment called Project CAIN. And scientists created him entirely from Jeffrey Dahmer’s DNA.

Jeff isn’t the only teenage serial-killer clone. Others have been genetically engineered using the DNA of the Son of Sam, the Boston Strangler, and Ted Bundy. Some clones were raised, like Jeff, in caring family environments; others within homes that mimicked the horrific early lives of the serial killers they were created from.

When the most dangerous of the boys are set free, the summer of killing begins. Worse, they hold a secret weapon even more deadly than the terrible evil they carry within.

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SHHHH!
Don’t spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths…